From a site that is far inferior to fightbeat Calzaghe rejects Hopkins offer! Unbeaten WBC/WBA/WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe says he has rejected an offer from Golden Boy to fight Bernard Hopkins. "To be honest, the offer wasn't as much as I got for the Kessler fight so from a business point of view the deal doesn't make sense for me," Super Joe told Wales on Sunday. "Hopkins must really convince me with hard cash that he really wants this fight because I'm not sure he does." Calzaghe, who will be at in Las Vegas to cheer on countryman Ricky Hatton next Saturday, added that Hopkins is still his #1 target but only if the numbers add up. He also dismissed a possible bout against IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods saying "While Clinton has a title, he is not a big name and will not get American TV excited – and I want to keep them happy as that's where the money is."
Hopkins will never again fight a credible opponent so long as he shall live, I hear he's waiting for a Tito rematch ?...Now who the fuck really wants to see that?...that's what ya call taking advantage, Hopkins will continue to wriggle out of proposals from Dawson, Calzaghe, Kessler, Pavlik or ofcourse his dad Jermaine Taylor, and will continue to keep sniffing around for smaller 'name' fighters who he'll pay to come up drastically^^^^ in weight.
why should Calzaghe take less than the Kessler fight? It's fucking stupid.:dunno: I think it's Hopkin's way of saying he don't want the fight. By giving him an offer he will refuse. Somehow HOpkins thinks he is a big draw. Everytime I read something Hopkins said he keeps talking about how much of a legend in the sport and how anybody should be lucky to be in the same ring with him.:doh: Hopkins is one of those guys who had a pretty good carreer but is overrating himself like hell.
who cares what he was offered. It shouldn't be less than the Kessler fight. Why would he have to come to the states to take a paycut. Normally a fighter is compensated when he travels in a big fight. Not the other way around.
Calzaghe says it's less than the Kessler fight...let take his word for it.....Maybe Calzaghe is pricing himself out of the fight....thinking he deserve more than he does cause he has to do some traveling. Kessler vs. Calzaghe HBO rating were not that great...so Calzaghe popularity most be central to only Wales...:stir:
Yeah but let's not forget that years ago when they first negotiated a fight between these two the guy who fucked things up was Hopkins. there was an agreement as far as the money than that fucker asked for more and the fight fell off. to me it's HOpkins who don't want it! I also don't buy that ratings bullshit. Calzague/Kessler was one of the most awaited fights since it was signed. Hopkin is like Oscar now. It's all about the most money he can make with the smallest risk possible. I think Hopkins became all the bullshit he used to be against before as a fighter.
This is a bullshit excuse. Seriously, if you make $10 million one fight, and then $5 million the next, whats the problem? Calzaghe has more then enough money in the bank. I thought after the Kessler fight he'd be more concerned with his legacy than the $$, but obviously its the same old Joe.
Everyone knows B-Hop is tight mofo when it comes to business why should Joe accept less...travelling fighter alawys gets paid to travel.. This is B-hops way of ducking Joe. He knows at this stage in 2007 Joe would kick the living daylights out of grampa hopkins.
When was the last time a guy unified a division in one of the years biggest fights and then accepted an offer to travel abroad, move up a division (and vacate all of his titles) and fight a 'legend' for LESS money than his last fight? Hopkins has no more than a 10% chance of winning this bout. Why would he want that type of fight with Joe now when he didn't want one five years ago? MTF
Hopkins moved up from 160 to 175 to fight Antonio Tarver in that fight many, many also said he had no chance...or 10% of beating big milkdud Tarver...but he beat him 12-0 w/ a knockdown.... Calzaghe wouldn't even move up a few pounds to fight Tarver....::After every fight Calslappy would say how he woudl like to fight the best..blah..blah..but he NEVER moved up to fight Jones daddy....shit when ROY JONES was in his prime at 175/68...CALSLAPPY didn't want none of the BEST in the WORLD>.. Both guys are assholes..HOpkins and Joe...but I DOUBT Hopkins is afraid of Calslappy...
Let us not forget the shit ratings the Calzaghe vs Kessler fight just did. Calzaghe should take the fact that he is not a draw in the states into consideration when evaluating an offer. Who could Calzaghe fight that would make him more money than Hopkins? Woods? He doesn't have many options as far as credible opponents go and nobody is going to get him a bigger pay day than Hopkins. Sometimes fighters need to take the best AVAILABLE offer and not worry about what they made in their last fight.
That's exactly why G offered Calzaghe what they did. It's hardly a coincidence their purse offer coincided with HBO's revealing the ratings for that show. They did the same to Winky when negotiating the Hopkins fight, reminding him that the Wright-Quartey card was the lowest rated telecast of the year. To answer Illuminati's question - Calzaghe got $3 million for the fight, at least from HBO, not sure if he made anything add'l from Setanta, or a percentage of the gate. I don't blame Joe for rejecting this offer, much as I wouldn't expect Hopkins to travel to the UK for anything short of a career-high payday.
$3 million that it...? ::...damn Golden boy offered him less than that..:doh: damn...how much did Winky make for the Hopkins fight...and Tarver...
They made the offer knowing full well it would be rejected. It's not exactly an uncommon move in boxing. Give a low ball offer and then sit back and claim you're being ducked when it's not accepted. I have very little interest in this fight anyway.
For Hopkins-Wright, Hopkins got $3 million, Winky $2 million, and both got a percentage of the PPV upside Hopkins-Tarver - Bernard earned $5 million, Tarver $3.5 million, but also lost $250,000 on a bet that he'd knock out Hopkins - and inside of 5 rounds ::
and the worst part is, HBO gave the green light to low-ball Calzaghe. Their way of reminding Warren how much they invested in the fight and what they got back in return.
$300,000. But with the $250,000 extra he won from Tarver, he really only lost $50,000. And I'm sure he didn't pay a dime of it, anyway. Much like he made his $50,000 bet that he'd knock out Joppy, only to tell Joppy after the fight, "I'll honor my bet. Don King will gladly pay you your money" ::
I think everyone knew from the start that this fight would never take place. Hopkins has never wanted to put his sig on a contract that contains the words Joe Calzaghe.
This is probably right, but that doesn't detract from the fact that Hopkins doesn't want anything to do with Joe. He didn't five years ago and he certainly doesn't now. Why fight Joe now, when Hopkins has very little chance of winning, when he priced himself out late 5 years ago, when he had, at the very, very least, an even money shot of beating Joe IMO? This fight will never take place. Joe won't take less than 3 million to leave Wales, and Bernard wont leave the US. End of... MTF Oh, and my other points seem to have been lost in translation ::
Who can Calzaghe fight that would get him the same or better payday than a Hopkins fight. I'm stuggling to come up with anyone.
